고대 중국의 ‘복수’ 관념과 그 문학적 표현

Abstract

In ancient China, patterns of revenge are mainly seen in the Classics and in historical books and were mostly based on obtaining revenge for one’s blood relative. Once a person seeking revenge secured basic justification, their behavior would be supported or even receive praise from public sentiment and was taken care of in an lenient manner. Women who sought revenge for their father or husband were also commended by officers and writers, and women’s revenge, in particular, was one subject novelists enjoyed writing about. We are often able to see strong secularism in the old stories of Ancient Chinese novels, especially in vernacular novels. Examples are stories which frequently-featured the revenge of female lemures on men who had hurt them, and stories of the revenge of vindictive ghosts in everyday life. Within Chinese cultural tradition, enmity can only be solved with revenge. Even though Buddhism had been introduced into China calling for an end to revenge and the dissolution of enmity, those arguments were not received as they were meant to be, and instead, the idea of retributive justice and Samsara were absorbed into Chinese culture. As these ideas became connected with the Chinese concept of revenge, the result meant the creation of a new type of revenge that carried on revenge for one’s blood relative.